The OMG Essence standard has recently been published as the kernel for software engineering methods. We show that the Essence view of software engineering is reminiscent of a nondeterministic, multidimensional finite state machine, and that the Essence lends support to a semi-Markov decision process model of software engineering which, in practice, facilitates a goal-driven adaptive software engineering. We develop an activity-state mapping algorithm and a goal-activity cover algorithm based on the Essence, which can help automate the health monitoring of project states and the adaptive planning of project activities in a software engineering project.